Goya Foods breaks ground on new N.J. headquarters

Secaucus-based Goya Foods Inc. broke ground on a new $127 million warehouse and headquarters facility Wednesday on a Jersey City tract that is one of the last few parcels in North Jersey that could be used for such a sizable project.

About 250 elected and state officials, including Governor Christie and company employees attended a ceremony under a large white tent on the 40-acre site on County Road that will be home to the 615,000-square-foot facility, for which the company has been awarded an $82 million state tax break as an incentive to remain in New Jersey.

“This is a very exciting day for Goya,” said Peter Unanue, executive vice-president at the company. “We were able to find a property that would allow us to expand and grow, while keeping our manufacturing close by.”

“We know that making a commitment for the long run will not only help to grow Goya Foods but will guarantee the efficiency of Goya’s overall operation for years to come,” he said.

Also at the ceremony were more than a dozen members of the Goya family, which founded and runs the 75-year-old private company – the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the nation. Among them was Joseph Unanue, the son of company founder Prudencio Unanue and the former company CEO.

Goya acquired the undeveloped land from Rockefeller Group Development Corp., which bought it in 2006 from the Norfolk Southern freight railroad company.

Clark Machemer, vice president of the Rockefeller Group, said that no other site in North Jersey could handle such a large project, except perhaps the site of the aborted Encap golf-and-housing project that straddled Lyndhurst, Rutherford and North Arlington. Machemer said his company sold the land to Goya for about $27 million and is constructing the facility for about $100 million, which will then be owned by Goya.

Speaking at the ceremony, Governor Christie hailed the tax break, which amounts to about 65 percent of the project cost, as a good investment.

“I want to thank Goya, most importantly for their confidence in our state, and its people,” said Christie. “This investment, that we are making here will pay off in more jobs, and a more vibrant economy as we move forward into the future.”

A Jersey City official said it granted Goya a 20-year-tax break, or payment in lieu of taxes.

The new facility, which is expected to open in 2014, will enable Goya to consolidate its distribution center in Bethpage, N.Y, and its existing headquarters and warehouse in Secaucus. That 240,000-square-foot facility will become a manufacturing operation, the company said.

New Jersey awarded the tax break to Goya after the company said it was looking out of state for a location on which to build the planned facility, including sites in Suffern, N.Y., and eastern Pennsylvania.

Goya, in its application to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA), said the new building would house 491 jobs, including 316 from the Secaucus operation and 66 from Bethpage. The EDA at the time said nine new jobs would be created.

Goya officials said at the groundbreaking, however, that the plan would retain 500 existing jobs, and create 80 new positions.

Christie later rebutted the suggestion that $82 million is a lot of money to retain 500 or so jobs.

"That’s not what it’s about,” he said. “It’s not just those 500 jobs. If Goya were to leave the state, it would have a downstream domino effect on a lot of other companies and businesses that do business with Goya because they're here. It’s just too simplistic to take the number of jobs and divide it into the incentive.”